I have a question for those here who are familiar with Photoshop and such... Been working a lot with it lately (mainly a picture of the three main characters in The Wheel of Time series) but I'm curious as to how you folks do the shading? I usually just use Burn and Dodge tool for the highlights, but I was wondering if there are any other ways that you folks fancy?

I have a question for those here who are familiar with Photoshop and such... Been working a lot with it lately (mainly a picture of the three main characters in The Wheel of Time series) but I'm curious as to how you folks do the shading? I usually just use Burn and Dodge tool for the highlights, but I was wondering if there are any other ways that you folks fancy.

Don't use dodge and burn. They can make tones muddy or just plain weird. Only use dodge for really, really, really bright and small highlights if you wish. So instead of using dodge and burn try different hues. For example, let's just say you start with a base colour of dark purple. First pick a lighter purple (lower the opacity and flow to whatever feels right, I usually have them set around 20% usually) and start blocking in where your lighter colours are going to be. Once you have that settled choose another colour, closer to a pink hue and start shading again.
Remember for backgrounds: the closer something is the more defined and colourful it's going to be. Things that are far away will appear a little unclear and desaturated.

Edit: Sometimes flatter colours can work, but it all depends on what you're doing. Art is one of those things that's very, very situational. But try to use different hues instead of making your one hue darker or lighter, especially when painting skin.

I'll have to dig up something of mine to show for an example. I'm not the greatest with words. :P

UPDATE:
Okay, example one. Scroll all the way down until you come across the picture of the big eye. Now when you look carefully you can see dark ruddy hues, pinkish hues, and light beiges. At the peak highlights you can also see a blue/green tint, as well as little details to give the skin some texture. http://hitsujifox.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3immsd

This second example is an example of reflected light. The character's base hue is a bluish one, but the sunset pink and orange coming from the left of the picture are reflected on her skin. You don't ever have to do huge reflections of light, but keep reflected light in mind. Ignore the fact that the halo is also a light source. I added that in right at the end. So yeah, just ignore that. Just focus on the normal light coming from the right, and the coloured light coming from the left. http://hitsujifox.deviantart.com/art...dess-208966556

I'm going to go find a tutorial for you that's been traveling around the internet...I just have to find it again.

Ah I see your point, many thanks for the advice Smudging out all those Burn/Dodge marks was getting massively tiring, shading a single small area could take ages because of all the fidgeting and correcting it needed... Good thing I'm on summer holidays, got lots of time on my hands for practice

Merany, to avoid weird or scratchy shading use big brushes with a low opacity and flow when you're laying down colour and value. Also, try not to smudge too much. Too much smudging can make a piece look very cheap. Plus, smudging takes forever to load in photoshop, or maybe it's just my photoshop. :P

Here are adonihs' brushes. You can download them and use them. The best brushes (I find) are the two top ones because they are both very good for blocking stuff in and doing detailed work. Or if you like a more smokey look to your underpainting, the soft airbrushes under the first two are very good. Or, of course, you can combine them. Every artist has to find their way of painting. http://adonihs.deviantart.com/gallery/9827508#/d1ytm3r

EDIT 1:Okay then...mmochamp is still borked. Maybe someone would be nice enough to fully tutorial me on how to post images.
Also, is anyone with mac having trouble as well?

My computer is in Swedish so I don't know if I can help but I will do my best.

First we start with the deviant page where the image is. Right click it and it should look something like this: http://i.imgur.com/ALzmA.png (The highlighted part should loosely translate to "Copy image url/webadress")

EDIT 5: Alright, I think it's safe to say that mmochamp either hates me or my mac. :/
EDIT 4: Alright, I'll try linking from photobucket.
EDIT 3: Okay...that didn't work. The image showed up in the post before submitting, but when I submitted the post it turned into the little blue question mark. Aw fuck. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually a problem with deviantart. Another forum I know of has trouble with deviantart images.
EDIT2: Wait! I think I got it! I think instead of the usually copying of the image address, I can copy the image itself..so I'm going to try that.
EDIT: Okay...there seems to be an issue with copying and pasting the image address. For some reason only a portion of the image address pastes. Hmmmm...

Okay, Migari, I'll try again.
I'll try out two addresses just in case.

I like the WoW ponies, Migari. I think I shall repost that image in the pony thread, since I haven't seen it in there yet.

Why does Tyrande have a horn and wings, though?

Actually, I already posted that picture, along with a few of my others. I rather my stuff not be posted there again. I'm not well liked in that thread because a couple of over-reactors took my posts the wrong way and thought my stuff was 'weird'. They didn't read my posts in their entirety. Unfortunately, tones don't go well over the internet. Every single time I explain myself in a, well, explanatory tone, people think I'm frothing at the mouth.

And I gave her wings and a horn (well, more of an antler :P) because in FiM 'lore' the ponies in power (like Celestia and Luna) have both pegasus wings and unicorn horns. They're extra magical I guess.

And Migari, thanks for the help. One day, mmochamp will once again work for me, but for now I'll just post links.